Design and fabrication of MEMS-based thermally-actuated image stabilizer for cell phone camera

A micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS)-based image stabilizer is proposed to counteracting shaking in cell phone cameras. The proposed stabilizer (dimensions, 8.8 x 8.8 x 0.2 mm(3)) includes a two-axis decoupling XY stage and has sufficient strength to suspend an image sensor (IS) used for anti-shaking function. The XY stage is designed to send electrical signals from the suspended IS by using eight signal springs and 24 signal outputs. The maximum actuating distance of the stage is larger than 25 mu m, which is sufficient to resolve the shaking problem. Accordingly, the applied voltage for the 25 mu m moving distance is lower than 20 V: the dynamic resonant frequency of the actuating device is 4485 Hz, and the rising time is 21 ms. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.